There are plenty of marriage sites on the Moldovan web, and their numbers are growing rapidly as more and more young (and some not so young) women - a majority of them young, but already divorced and perhaps with a young child - are eager to find a way out of Moldova (and a nice foreign man at the same time). Information on those sites can be found elsewhere on the web--perhaps you've even come from one of them, and have made an acquaintance there. Or perhaps you're a Peace Corps Volunteer who just happened to fall in love while in Moldova. Or, who knows, perhaps you met a Moldovan who was in the U.S. on an exchange program and had to return home, but the feelings are still strong. My advice is the same: if you're serious about getting married, it will easier in the long run to get married in Moldova.
First, the bride and groom must register at a ZAGS (Civil Status Office where people go for the actual wedding ceremony) in the city where the Moldovan is registered as a citizen of Moldova. Unfortunately, in recent years a "marriage tax" has been instituted for any foreign citizen who wishes to marry a Moldovan. For Romanians and citizens of CIS countries, a smaller tax exists, but for Americans the tax is doubled. Friends of mine who recently married told me that the tax for Americans marrying in Chisinau is $900, while the tax in a small town in Moldova might be around $80-$90. I have no idea what accounts for the difference, and changes in such laws are arbitrary and unfortunately subject to inflation if the American is judged to be wealthy. You must go to the ZAGS office in the city where the Moldovan is registered to live. If this means Chisinau, you may want to look into the possibility of having the Moldovan change his registration from Chisinau to another small town or village where relatives may live. As a result, the tax will almost certainly be lower.
The American also will need 2 documents showing that a) s/he has never been married or is now divorced, and that b) s/he has no criminal record. Such documents may be difficult or impossible to obtain in America, especially the first, since there exists no office that issues such a document anywhere in the U.S. However, the U.S. Consular Department in the Embassy in Chisinau can issue a document with a pretty seal attesting to the fact that "According to the power vested in the vice consul of the United States of America, I hereby attest to the fact that __________ stood before me and made the following statement: '__________ is not divorced and has never been married.'" In other words, a completely laughable bogus document. Yet such a paper is widely accepted at every ZAGS in Moldova.
Each English-language document will cost you $55, thank you very much. You then have to have your own translation done into Romanian. Since I've used this system for numerous such silly documents that have actually succeeded in satisfying Moldovan bureaucracy, I have a template for the Romanian translation. Simply translate the text of the statement the document says you made, and insert it into the middle of the translation. (Don't translate the documents into Russian, as they must be in Romanian. You may or may not then need to go to a translation bureau to get the translations certified and stamped, depending upon the experience of the people in the ZAGS office. In Chisinau, consider it necessary to get your translations certified; in other towns, you may not need to.)
http://old.ournet.md/~marriage/
Translation and interpretation services in Chisinau and Moldova
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